Heirloom Audio' latest production~ St. Bartholomew's Eve (A Review)

My Middlest son has enjoyed many of Heirloom Audio's Henty productions, and I was hoping that perhaps my Youngest would finally be ready to appreciate one of these historical fiction audio dramas, so I was looking forward to the arrival of St. Bartholomew's Eve

In the past I have held off listening to previous Heirloom Audio producitons with my youngest to due to some sensitivities and the fact that typical battle descriptions (and audio) would have bothered him, but I figured that he could handle most of what I'd heard in past reviews.  I decided to use this as some "audio/history" schooling overseen by Middlest (who is now 18) while I drove to pick up Eldest from college for fall break, so I put it on the iPad for them to listen to, and I popped the CD's in the car so that I could pre-listen in my early-morning driving (You might recall that I listened to Heirloom Audio's Wulf The Saxon on my way to PA last February, these long, solitary car trips being a good time for *me* to listen).

Well, my friends, I'm afraid that I have a very different review to write this time. While the cast is still amazing, and the production is incredibly professional, this time I felt it really was too much. For family-friendly listening, I expect some of the violence to be tuned down, but in this instance, it appears that Heirloom Audio actually dialed it up.

After listening through a fair number of tracks I sent a panicked message to my son, telling him to remove the audio drama from the iPad, and to NOT listen to it with my Youngest. Why would I do such a thing? I freely admit, I avoid horror, and I tend not to watch heavy drama and shows with major battle scenes myself, but I can generally stomach most things termed "family-friendly." I understand and appreciate the value of the themes of honor and bravery, etc... However, by the end of this story, I was feeling bothered and queasy due to a number of scenes and themes, for quite some time after as well.

I was bothered enough that I later downloaded a free version of Henty's St. Bartholomew's Eve and skimmed through it, doing some word searches from particular scenes. While there is still some violence (This *was a terribly bloody uprising against the Hugenots), the actual Henty version is not nearly as graphic as the audio drama in my opinion. In fact, one of the storylines in the audio drama that bothered me centers around a young lad (11 or 12 years old, so right at my Youngest's age), but when I skimmed/searched the Henty novel, there was no mention of this boy. It would appear that his character was thrown into the plot mostly as a gratuitous emotional string to pull, which I really do not appreciate at all. Additionally, the use of Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is another instance of adding to Henty's work something that was not in the original and adds to the gratuitous flavor of trying to push a point that wasn't original to the story (It is integral to the non-Henty storyline of the aforementioned boy).

I don't believe that the age range is appropriate for this particular recording. I do think it could be a good supplement to a high school, or even college course covering this part of history. It could open up the opportunity for discussion about the dangers of Mob Rule, which is history we appear to be close to repeating, as well as the excellent character traits of the two main characters, who behave very bravely, with humility, and wisdom. But in my opinion, this is NOT suitable for young children.

That being said, it might be time for me to pull out some of my older Henty Audios for my Youngest to listen to. I think he would be fine with most of them now (although I will double-check with Middlest on the ones that he mainly listened and I only skimmed through, to get his opinion).
Here are those titles, and my reviews for you to consider:
Wulf the Saxon
Captain Bayley's Heir
In the Reign of Terror (might wait a bit on this one as well)
The Cat of the Bubastes
Beric the Briton
The Dragon and the Raven
In Freedom's Cause

I hope in future that Heirloom Audio will return to sticking fairly close to the Henty stories when they write the screenplays and consider toning down some of the audio violence if they really want to reach families. Not all of us have our media tuned in to the graphic blood, guts, and horror that are so prevalent today (some things are better left to the imagination...).

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Heirloom Audio
• Product: St. Bartholomew's Eve
• Ages: Heirloom Audio suggests 6-16, I would NOT  go by that, and instead would put it strictly at a high school and up.
• Price: Multiple options: 
• 2-CD Set $29.97 + $4.97 shipping
• MP3 Download $19.97
• Live the Adventure Club $7.95/month (1st month free, and St. Bartholemew's Eve CD's free, just pay shipping fee of $4.97) 

You can visit Heirloom Audio on their Social Media pages:
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Instagram

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. Their opinions may be far different from mine since we all view things through our own lens, and mine is admittedly a little more old-fashioned. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

 #hsreviews #HeirloomAudio #LiveTheAdventure #BringingHentyBack #AudioAdventures

GrammarPlanet (online grammar lessons from Analytical Grammar)

I have heard of Analytical Grammar, but have never had an up close and personal glimpse of the program. That all changed with my review of a subscription to GrammarPlanet, their online grammar program. This program is intended for students ages 10 through adult, for learning or reviewing, and currently has 13 units, with more being added regularly until it is complete at 60 units.

When you sign up, you will be taken to a parent/teacher dashboard where you add in your students. The teacher dashboard really just shows where the students are, and allows you to see the work completed. There is no instruction or extra material covered here. I think it would be helpful (for planning and preparing ahead of time) if the teacher dashboard in the paid subscription included things like all the unit notes in a downloadable file... instead of only accessing them through the student dashboard, and maybe a little bit of explanation for the feedback pages.

After your students sign in, they are taken to their own dashboard.

For the purposes of this review, I worked through some of the program myself, and had my 11-year-old use it as well.

Each unit is locked until the previous unit is completed. Each unit includes printable notes (we just opened them up in a separate window on the computer, and usually had both windows side by side) which can be accessed by clicking the "reprint notes" button on the right side of the screen.

An instructive video is included for each unit. I had my student read the notes, and then watch the video. The video goes over the notes, with a couple of short quizzes (one or two questions) to make sure the student understands the instruction, followed by examples and a reinforcement of the process to be used when identifying the parts of speech for that Unit.

I will point out that the videos have close-captioned capabilities which I often use as another point of reinforcement (or for those who really don't like the auditory side of things, it's another walk-through of the notes with a little extra added in).

After going through the materials, the student moves on to the exercises. Each unit has 5 levels, so going through one/day would be a good pace. It is suggested that the student not spend more than 15 minutes per day on GrammarPlanet, keeping the lessons short and sweet. The exercises are essentially diagramming sentences, but they start out simply with identifying nouns, then adding in proper nouns, articles and adjectives, and so on, as shown in the outline towards the top of the review. The student gets instant feedback, showing them what they identified correctly and what they missed or misidentified.

Here is a little quirk of the program that we found somewhat confusing. In the example above the name "Father Niccolo Lorini" was properly identified using the proper noun with wings symbols  --PN   PN-- (when used on the first and last word, this added the PN in the middle automatically).
In the example below, I'm not quite sure why the PN symbols in the middle weren't added automatically when the --PN  PN-- was used on "Father" and "Physics."

In my opinion, it would be helpful if the mistakes were clickable with an explanation, especially for those who are on the younger end of the age range, which might help clear up any confusion with things like this~ or it could be a mistake on the part of the program.

My son was also getting confused by words that can be more than one part of speech (nouns and adjectives like gold and silver for example), and explanations would have been extremely helpful to him, or reminders to ask all the questions. The way the program is set up currently is great for an older student or as a refresher, but there could be a few more "helps" added in for the 10-12 year olds.

I also found the order of terms interesting, learning all things relating to nouns before moving on to verbs. I might have preferred to have subject/verbs introduced directly after proper nouns, which would have alleviated some confusion for my son. He knows what verbs are, but not being allowed to identify them for so long made him second-guess himself on a regular basis, resulting in multiple incorrect exercises.

So... what happens when a student identifies a number of words incorrectly? First, they are given extra exercises to work a little more. If there is still an issue, an email is sent to the parent/teacher advising them that there is a problem, and the account is locked so that you can go over the material with your student again before unlocking the account. A feature here that I appreciate is the ability to click on the lessons that were a problem so you can discuss what went wrong.

In this unit I had to unlock the account a couple of times... You can see that I'm checking out "Practice 12" and that the majority of the words are correctly identified, even though there is a big red X by the practice in the list on the left... the same goes for the tests where only one word was misidentified, but there is a big red X... I think those graphics could be changed to be a bit more encouraging, maybe? I will say my mathematically inclined son took issue with the concept that "A majority of the words were incorrectly identified" when he was locked out~ he actually counted his errors and wasn't pleased when they were definitely not a majority~ a significant number perhaps would be better wording here for concrete thinkers. ;)

Occasionally my son would just speed through the lesson, which led to careless mistakes, and repeated exercises... hopefully reinforcing the concept of checking his work twice before clicking submit.

After the five lessons in each unit are completed, there is a unit test (which doesn't give immediate feedback like the lessons), and the student can move on or not, based on how well they do. In the graphics I included here, a blue background is for the practice exercises, and the yellow/mustard background is for the tests.

Suggestions and room for improvement aside, I think that this program is a good tool to help your student get a handle on the English language, as they learn when, where, why, and how words are used the way they are. You can check it out for free and see what you think yourself. For kids who absolutely hate writing, this can be a boon, and for the parents, it does the correcting for you, which can also be greatly appreciated.

When I asked my son, he says he gives GrammarPlanet a B+ (that boy!). He found the content interesting,  he liked the feedback, and thought the notes were well done. In spite of some of his frustrations he felt overall the system was good, and even though it took him longer to get through some units, he feels like he is learning well.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: GrammarPlanet
• Product: no-ad online subscription
• Ages: 10-99+
• Price: $39 which covers the program until they get all the way through, no time limit.

You can visit GrammarPlanet on the Analytical Grammar social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

#hsreviews  #GrammarPlanet #grammar #onlinelearning

Lamplighter Publishing, The Secret Bridge (A Literary Review)

I have been familiar with Mark Hamby and Lamplighter Publishing  for a number of years, since I first heard him as a gripping keynote speaker at our state homeschool convention, so I was delighted to be chosen to review their newest title, The Secret Bridge by Amy Le Feuvre (originally published in 1899).

If you aren't familiar with Lamplighter Publishing, let me tell you just a little bit about them. The purpose of the company is to republish rare books from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century, with an eye to encouraging and building up people of Godly character. The books chosen for publication either illustrate characters who exhibit high moral standards, or are more cautionary tales of those who make wrong choices and suffer the consequences. The idea being that good stories will instill in their hearers/readers (whether children or adults) the desire to model their characters after the good characters of the heros/heroines of the stories.

Now~ a little bit about the physical qualities of Lamplighter Books. They are all beautifully bound, a this one is no exception! The cover catches your eye immediately, with its gilded title and embossed illustration.  I mentioned the "hand" of a book in a recent review, and the hand of this book is delightful, with a lovely smooth feel. Everyone who has seen it has been drawn to it immediately. The photo above really does not do it justice, and I'm sure mine won't either, but here are a few more shots, to try to give you an idea of the shine, detail, and texture: 

Finally~ because you can't judge a book by its cover, even if the cover is simply amazing, I will tell you a bit about the story itself. :)

Some of my favorite books were written by 19th Century authors, so I was immediately comfortable with the language and syntax of Amy Le Feuvre. Her main characters, Godfrey and Bridget come to life on the page immediately.

We learn that Bridget is the orphan of an English expat, who has returned to England to throw herself on the mercy of her uncle. She discovers that her uncle has passed away before her arrival, and she is left alone, with no money, family or friends (barring a friend made on her voyage home, one Godfrey Bullingham). Although she tries to find gainful employment and make it on her own, Godfrey steps in to save her from sure destitution.

Bridget and Godfrey strike up a correspondence when he is called to duty with the British Navy. I must note once again the care with which this volume was crafted~ with different fonts for each hand writing a letter. I love that attention to detail!

At the beginning of the story, neither Bridget nor Godfrey are close to God, but soon Bridget is brought into contact with a delightful character, Mr. Jocelyn. Although not exactly  a member of the clergy, he is certainly a minister of The Truth. He urges Bridget to "Acquaint thyself with Him" and gives her little Scriptural clues, rungs on a ladder to climb if you will, in her search for Truth.

One of the quotes that I mulled over for awhile comes when Bridget is speaking with Mr. Jocelyn as they walk in the same direction. He is a great naturalist, and enjoys explaining bits and pieces of his discoveries, interspersed with the words of The Creator. At the end of the walk, Bridget thanks Mr. Jocelyn:

"Thank you for what you have told me. You have interested me in more natural history this afternoon than I could ever have thought possible, and your other words--"
"They're not mine," he said abruptly, "and they're too costly to be treated lightly. The less said about them the better. Man's words will sometimes destroy their beauty, like the rough fingers of a schoolboy on a butterfly's wing. Thought is the only hand fit to touch them -- thought and prayer." (P114)

In today's world, where so many think they have the corner on what God means, and write multiple books explaining their view of God's truth, it might behoove us to take Mr. Jocelyn's advice, and simply go back to the original, the Word of God.

I won't tell you any more of the story, but will note that there is plenty of gentle mystery to keep the reader's interest while exploring the themes of faith, trust, and loyalty. This is the sort of literature that is truly a breath of fresh air when so much around us today is gritty and saturated with the pollution of the prevalent worldview.

Lamplighter Books would make excellent heirloom quality gifts for the reader in your life, and there are titles suitable for ages 6-11, 9-14, and 12-adult. They offer a book club and a number of different collections. There are even comprehension quizzes that can be purchased to go with each book if you so desire.
Lamplighter Publishing... Building Christlike Character, One Story At A Time.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Lamplighter Publishing 
• Product: The Secret Bridge
• Ages: 12- 99+ (publisher recommended age~ I added the plus ;) )
• Price: $28 

Visit Lamplighter Publishing on their social media pages:
Facebook, Twitter, and  Google+

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say about this delightful volume.
As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

      Blessings~

#hsreviews #classicliterature #lamplighter

The Pencil Grip Inc. Thin Stix (Art supply review!) cool no-mess paints!

A couple of years ago I did a review for The Pencil Grip Inc. , reviewing their Kwik Stix Tempera Paint Sticks around Christmas time. We had a couple of fun projects we did with them, so if you didn't read that review, be sure to go check it out later. This spring the TOS Homeschool Review Crew has been sent their newest product to review, the Thin Stix 6pk of Classic Colors. As I mentioned in my first Kwik Stix review, the original product is reminiscent of a glue stick in shape and form. While a lot of fun to work with, they lacked the ability for adding finer detail, so I was delighted with the opportunity to check out their Thin Stix cousins.

One of the main benefits to the Kwik Stix line is that they truly are paint in an almost mess free form. No spills and drips, and they dry in 90 seconds (the only negative to that is if you are trying to blend two colors, you have to work FAST! :) ).

My college-aged daughter and I enjoyed playing with the new Thin Stix, and experimenting with a few things.

I used the original Kwik Stix to draw the outlines of the flower and the leaves, the thin stix to draw the detailed lines on the petals and the leaves, as well as the black "pointillism" center.

This picture was drawn almost exclusively with the thin stix~ I wonder if you can figure out where I used the thicker original Kwik Stix???

Here I was experimenting with layering~ Using the white Kwik Stix over the tree trunk on the top "vine" to see if it eliminated the transparency of the bottom two lines~ worked pretty well, don't you think?

My daughter drew these flowers mostly with the Thin Stix~ she ended up using the very edge of the original Kwik Stix to make the orange lines~ definitely much easier to use the Thin Stix overall.

My son used the Thin Stix for a project that I've been wanting him to try for a while, a
3-D hand picture. The Thin Stix were ideal for this project as the lines to fill in with color end up being pretty skinny. He enjoyed using the Stix for this instead of a marker or pencil, as the coverage makes it very nice to look at.

One other project that I did just a bit of was using the Thin Stix on large wooden popscicle sticks. We had seen the idea of making a "deck of cards" out of these as an easier way for smaller hands to hold a bunch of "cards" and still be able to see them all, for games like go fish, crazy eights, and more.

 

I think this would be a neat way to create some math "flash cards" as well, to practice basic operations. You could even decorate them and glue magnets on the back to give as gifts to moms and dads, grandparents and more.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: The Pencil Grip Inc. 
• Product: Thin Stix 6pk of Classic Colors 
• Ages: Clearly, I think this is a great product for all ages! :) 
• Price: $8.49 

You can visit The Pencil Grip Inc. on their social media pages: Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. 

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

#hsreviews   #MessFreeCreativity    #ThinStix

Creating a Masterpiece (Fine Art Instruction Review)

This is turning out to be an "artsy" year for us! Creating a Masterpiece allowed me to have art projects to explore with all of my age groups for this review, with access to many techniques, media, and levels through a Monthly Plan subscription.

About the Program
Sharon Hofer offers detailed video classes in a wide variety of media. I meant it when I said there was something for everyone! There are lessons in:

Acrylic, Batik, Block Printing, Conte Crayon, Copper Tooling, Glass Mosaic, Ink, Oil Painting, Oil Pastel, Pencil/Charcoal, Sculpture, Silk Painting, Soft Pastel, Watercolor, and Wood Burning

Each level offers eight or nine projects. The Beginners Level projects are completed in one lesson (which is broken down into smaller segments) and can be done by children as young as 4 years of age!  Level 1-5 projects take three to seven lessons to complete, and the complexity increases with the level. Again, each lesson is broken down into smaller segments, and should take around an hour to complete.  There is also an Art in History level offering seven projects. Some are suitable for younger children, others are more advanced.

Our Experiences With Creating A Masterpiece

Aren't these pretty??? So many shades!

We sampled a few different projects, with multiple students/artistic levels/abilities.
The first one attempted was the free sample project offered on the website. Youngest and I pulled out our old chalk pastels and some black construction paper and... well, we discovered that sometimes using the cheap stuff really isn't the best. Time to purchase some black "pastel" paper and some "soft" pastels, which are a little different from chalk pastels.

*Side note: Sharon Hofer definitely suggests using the best supplies available that you can afford, and she maintains links for the supplies required for each lesson to Dick Blick Art Supplies on her website. I will note here that Dick Blick generally has some of the lowest prices around for quality merchandise if you are looking to purchase online ~ Having an art education major in the family next year, I've been checking out resources, and Dick Blick is great! :)

OK, on with the review~
Youngest angsted over his work as he frequently does, but second time through, using the new paper and pastels I set him up with the lesson on the ipad and left him to his own devices (this particular day I was getting ready for an outside activity, taking a shower, running around like crazy, and didn't have time to offer him "at his elbow" support and guidance). Although there were a couple of shouted questions through the bathroom door, I didn't really do a thing besides offer encouragement.
I was delighted by the end result and so was he:

He was so incredibly proud of his work, and insisted that we go purchase a frame to hang it on the wall immediately. :) (I have to admit that I was pretty proud of his accomplishment as well!)

His other project was in a medium that I really don't have much technical experience with, watercolor painting.

I think that perhaps his paper wasn't quite as wet as was recommended (hard to judge these things through a video), so he will be trying this another time, but even so, it turned out alright.

Pencil in hand to sign his masterpiece...

I do need to note that I did assist a little on this one, as he needed guidance in how to hold and use a flat brush, so some of the strokes are mine, or guided by my hand. Again, I'm interested to see how this turns out on a second go around.

I fiddled around with this project as well: 

Middlest tried his hand at wood burning (handy that I had a wood burning tool from a project I undertook decades ago~ less handy that the tip broke part-way through... again with the quality tools?).  Even with the snag, I think we've finally hit on an artistic endeavor my 16 year old enjoys and may continue. I do have to note that he chose not to do the actual project (a lion), but went with something he loves... fish...

I will note here that if you have a dedicated school space, or art space that would be ideal for some of these projects. My upstairs hallway smelled like a campfire (a nice campfire smell, not a stinky campfire smell, but a campfire smell none-the-less...). However, my home is old and has weird air-flow, and I expect that your experience will be different than mine. ;)

A couple of things to mention~ Sharon does speak through the early lessons to the 4-6 year old crowd (she may come off as "talking down" to an older child), so your older students might be a little put off by her tone but the instruction is solid, so I recommend that this be a lesson in being attentive even if one doesn't care for the tone. I did find that it changed in the higher levels, although Sharon still maintains her cheerful encouragement, which in and of itself is a good thing. :)

I also want to address the cost. I seldom mention anything about cost, as every homeschool family has a different financial structure. I just want to mention that if one were to spring for a local art class for one student it would $15-$17.50/ one hour class (price-checked in my area today). Ten weeks of classes run $150-$175/ student. While these video classes remove the feedback of in person classes, and are not "inexpensive" they *are* an economical choice when considering art classes for just one child, and even more so if there is more than one in the family.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill video art instruction. I feel your children really will create their own "masterpieces" that they (and you) will be proud of, and will want to share if you choose to use Creating a Masterpiece as part of your homeschool art instruction.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Creating a Masterpiece
• Product: Monthly Plan
• Ages: PreK-Adult
• Price: $39.99/month (Alternate plans are available, $349/year, individual level access starting at $119/year, and group membership plans) 

Visit Creating a Masterpiece on Facebook

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

#hsreviews #artinstruction #homeschoolart #onlineartprogram